Shanghai on a budget

What do we know about Shanghai? When you hear about this city the first things that pop in your head it’s the association with anthill, thousands of streets, dirtiness and chaos, overflow of population and opium jungle. That’s the image I had of the city before I even knew anything about China and shanghai until once I decided to go there and see it all myself.

Choo-Choo!!!
If you arrived in Pudong airport just like I did then have a chance to experience the fastest train in the world calls Maglev, which speeds up to 430km/h. The cost of ticket is $7.5 but if arriving by plane your ticket will cost only $6 and all you will need is to show your plane tickets. The train is super comfortable and nice and just within a minute you feel like you riding a plane. Sometimes it seemed like I am riding a rollercoaster because of its swing sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right but all this you will notice only if you look up in the window. Its takes 7 minutes to get to the city. It won’t take you to the city center but once you arrive you easily switch to subway. Which I find the easiest way to coordinate in Shanghai. Subway will cost you around $0.50 for one-way. It is one of the cheapest ways to travel in city.

Just so you know
While taking you time to get to center you might want to use your phone to check e-mails, news and etc. But don’t be surprised if your Gmail won’t work. It took me a minute before I was like “fuck, that’s right-Gmail is Google”. So once you in China just forget posting your fresh selfies to instagram – not going to work.
Here the sites that have banned in china in case you wonder|
Facebook
Twitter
Wikipedia
YouTube
Google
Instagram
Yahoo!
And im sure there many more as government tries to filter all censure in Internet and even news. You wont hear bad news in China. You just won’t. Well… Communists!!!
Once you are in center you will be surrounded by all high-risings. So if you are high-rise lover that’s the city for you. When I was walking through Shanghai it seemed like even casual ordinary buildings somewhere on the edge of city are so huge that you feel like an ant there. The main arteritis in city is Nanjing Rd. Its 6 km of shops, bazars.food and all kind of silly things you can see there.

Where to sleep?
So after you know how to move around the city you still need to find a place to sleep. Shanghai is not expensive city, as it might seem maybe. You easily can find hostels and get bed in dorm for like $7! Perfect! If you do some research you will find many spots for your stay.

Where to eat?
Shanghai is heaven for people who don’t have much to spend on travels. Anywhere you go at every corner you will find some place to eat and price is as low as $2 for duck noodles. Maybe duck meal was something special for you but not after china) Anywhere you go is duck ☺

Where to have fun?
During the day you walk the streets and explore the city but once the sun goes down you will be amazed by what happens. Shanghai turns into city from another end of galaxy. What during the day was just a building in the night it becomes decorations for the fifth element! The only thing is missing is flying cars ☺ But if you really want to let it all go through you then better go to the Oriental Pearl tower. While it will cost you around $20 to get to the 56th floor (the highest you can get) believe me it will worth it! If you afraid of heights then fuck… Not your luck. It also has a glass floor where you can see right underneath.
Having fun around the city you will notice that it looks so modern that traditional Chinese buildings how we used to see it in pictures and movies just seem not existing in Shanghai.
Could be fun to go and see cricket market (Chinese people like to have crickets as their pets no kidding!) and if you will want to have a pet like that for yourself you can get it for $3.5 ☺ why not.
I find that just to see all these Chinese markets would be fun enough as you will see so many funny and silly things.
So you if you coming here to see the traditional Chinese exotics you will be disappointed. But you sure will be fascinated by this cosmic city!

Have you been to Shanghai?